One padishah had an adult daughter. More than once, matchmakers had been sent to the padishah, but the princess did not want to hear about the wedding. Finally, the padishah called his wazirs to a council and said:
“Isn’t it time for us to get our daughter married?”
“It’s time,” answered the Wazirs. “You just need to find out who she wants to marry.”
“I will marry only the strongest and most handsome hero, better than whom there is no one in the world,” said the daughter of the padishah.
They began to look for the groom. First they looked for him in their city. But such a strong and handsome man who had no equal in the whole world was not found.
“I’ll go further and look for the groom’s daughter in other cities,” said the padishah.
He rode and rode and reached a wide river, where on the bank sat an old man in a green robe, with a beard green as seaweed, with a green staff in his hand. The old man scaled something with a black stone on white pebbles and threw them into the water.
The padishah drove up to the old man and asked what he was writing and throwing into the river.
“I predict people’s future: whatever I write on a white pebble and throw into the bowl will come true.”
-Can you tell me what will happen to my daughter? “Who should she marry?” said the padishah and complained to the old man about his capricious daughter, who wants to marry only a strong and handsome man who has no equal in the world.
The old man smiled, wrote something on a pebble, threw it into the river and said:
“Your daughter will marry a black slave.”
“Oh, what are you saying?” the padishah exclaimed in fear. He was very frightened because he remembered: a black slave worked in his yard, the best worker in the city.
The upset padishah hurried home and thought all the way how to avoid such a fate for his daughter. Returning to the palace, he convened a council of wazirs and told them what fate awaited the princess.
- Woe to us! The black slave is going to marry my daughter! What should I do?!
“Execute him!” the vasirs answered without hesitation.
But the black slave, having learned that he was in danger of death, swore and swore that he did not want to marry the princess at all.
- How dare he refuse the padishah’s daughter?! Execute him! - said the Wazirs.
Not far from the palace of the padishah, in a small hut lived an old, old sage, respected by everyone. He was so old that he could no longer walk on his own. Hearing about the order of the padishah, the sage asked his neighbors:
“Put me on the white felt, take it by the four corners and carry me to the padishah.”
“What do you say, father?” the padishah asked the sage. “What advice will you give me?”
“Padishah!” said the sage. “You are free to dispose of your servants.” Send your black slave to the ends of the earth, give him any assignment, but do not execute an innocent person.
The padishah ordered to bring a black slave and told him:
- Hey, black slave! Go around the world and find me two precious black pearls the size of a nut, with moonlight inside. If you find them, I will cancel the order for your execution and give you freedom.
The black slave went to look for black pearls the size of a nut, with moonlight inside.
He walked around the world for a long time, exhausted himself, endured hunger and cold and human ridicule. Finally, he came to a river, on the bank of which sat an old man in green clothes, with a beard green as seaweed, with a green staff in his hand.
The black slave bowed to the old man and said:
“Will you tell me where to find the precious black pearls?”
“I see that you yourself are a precious pearl, pure and trusting, like a child.” I| I know who sent you and why! Well, you need to look for pearls! Sit here on the shore, wait for me.” With these words, the old man in green clothes went down to the river and disappeared under the water. Only green algae floated above.
But then the water began to rustle, the seaweed parted, the old man climbed out of the water and poured out a whole pile of large pearls from the bottom of his robe onto the shore.
- Take them and return to the padishah. Don’t show him all the pearls at once, first give him only two pearls.
The black slave hurried back without rest, reached the padishah and placed in front of him two huge black pearls with a moonlit glow. The padishah barely looked at the slave kneeling in front of him and shouted angrily:
- Now I've got you! These two pearls were in my treasury, and then someone stole them from me. So it was you who stole my pearls then?!
“Oh, sir, how many such pearls did you say you had in your treasury?” asked the slave.
“Just two, exactly two pearls,” said the padishah.
The black slave untied his travel bag and poured a whole pile of magnificent pearls onto the carpet in front of the padishah.
When, instead of two pearls, the padishah saw a whole bag of them, out of amazement he did not know what to say to the slave. Confused, he called his wazirs to a council.
“If the black slave managed to find not only two pearls, but a whole bag, then he intends to marry my daughter.” I cannot marry my daughter to a black slave and therefore I will execute him.
The vasirs did not know what to advise the padishah, and went to the sage. “You cannot break promises, the padishah must keep his word,” the elder told the wazirs.
“But I can dispose of my slave as I want!” the padishah objected and ordered to call the slave to him.
- Hey, black slave! Go to the ends of the world, watch the sun and moon rise, and then come and tell me, then I will cancel the order for your execution and give you freedom.
The poor slave, without saying a word, went to look for the end of the world where the sun and moon rise.
And the padishah began hastily looking for a groom for his aging daughter.
Days, weeks, months passed. The black slave walked around the world, crossed deserts, climbed over high mountains. His choruks were worn out, his clothes were torn, his staff became thin as a needle. In the rain and snowstorm, in the heat and cold, he kept walking and moving forward. Hungry, he begged for alms, received beatings for falling asleep somewhere at someone else's gate.
Finally, he approached a high, steep mountain, the top of which went into the sky. He tried to climb the mountain, but could not find an approach to it anywhere. There were sheer, smooth cliffs on all sides. Exhausted, he sat down on the ground and hopelessly
looked at the inaccessible cliffs. Suddenly a peri girl in white clothes appeared on the top of the mountain.
“Who are you and what are you looking for?” her voice reached him.
- I am the black slave of the padishah. The padishah told me to get to the place where the sun and moon rise. But I still haven’t even found out where it is, this place.
“Close your eyes!” said the girl. And a moment later, opening his eyes, the black slave saw that he was standing upstairs next to a girl in white clothes.
“Come on, I’ll show you what you’re looking for,” she said, and through a green lawn covered with beautiful white flowers, they headed towards tall trees, the lush branches of which bent down to the ground. As he approached, the slave saw that they were weeping willows growing around a large, quiet lake. The lake was so beautiful that he stopped enchanted and could not take his eyes off it.
“It’s so good here!” the slave exclaimed and went down to the water itself.
“Listen,” the girl told him. “The sun and the moon swim in this lake.” The water of this lake has wonderful properties. If you bathe in the lake immediately after the moon plunges into it, you will become white-skinned and ruddy, and the daughter of the padishah will happily marry you.
“I don’t want to marry the padishah’s daughter at all!” said the black slave. “Is it worth changing my skin for this?”
“Then wait until the sun bathes in the lake.” If you enter the water after him, you will feel great strength in yourself and become a mighty hero,” the girl said and left him alone.
The slave was thirsty, but he stood near the lake and did not touch the water. He wanted to refresh his tired body in the wonderful lake, but he patiently waited for the moon and sun to bathe.
Evening came and it began to get dark quickly. The golden sunlight of the day gave way to a silvery mist. Then suddenly darkness came and the mountain began to tremble. Something large plunged into the calm water of the lake, and a wave hit the shore. A moment later, a round shiny moon came out of the lake, rose up and floated across the sky. Everything around began to shine, glitter, and turn silver from the moonlight.
All night the black slave sat on the shore of a wonderful lake and could not take his eyes off the magnificent picture. But then the moon turned pale, went out, it began to get light, and suddenly the mountain began to tremble again, and something large sank into the quiet water of the lake, and a moment later the slave saw a radiant, sparkling sun rise into the heights from the lake. Rising higher and higher, it sent a dazzling light to the earth, and everything around was filled with golden radiance and warmth.
So the black slave saw the sunrise. Joyful, he threw off his rags, entered the lake, drank water and plunged. And I immediately felt how I had grown,
His strength increased tenfold. Coming out of the water, he grabbed the branch of a weeping willow, and the willow bowed down to the water before him, and between its roots he found a round shield, a sharp sword, a high helmet and new beautiful clothes.
The black slave quickly put on the clothes of a hero, picked up a weapon and went to look for the peri girl. He found her in the same place where he had first met her and began to thank her for everything she had done for him.
“I only helped you rise to the top,” said the girl. “You yourself achieved your goal, you reached the place where the sun and the moon rise, you saw them rise, you swam in the lake after the sun, you drank the water of life and joy and became a mighty hero.” Let your mighty power not bring evil to the earth, do not cause trouble to people.
- I promise you, beauty! “I will be kind to people!” exclaimed the hero. “But first I must settle accounts with my master, the padishah, and gain my freedom...
And the black hero returned to the country where he had been the padishah’s slave for so many years. Along the way he accomplished many feats, and glory ran ahead of him. So the hero reached the city of the padishah.
And the padishah was still looking for a groom for his daughter.
“Hurry, quickly, bring the guest to my palace!” said the padishah when he was informed about the arrival of the hero. “Yes, tell the princess, maybe she will agree to marry him!” And she’s completely run out of suitors.
The daughter of the padishah looked through the crack of the door at the mighty hero.
“I agree,” she said. “I’m ready to marry this hero!” He is stronger and more beautiful than anyone in the world!
“Wow, finally!” exclaimed the padishah.
To rejoice, he ordered the servants to bring the best treat, seated the guest in the front corner and began to ask where he had been and what he had seen.
“I was where the sun and the moon rise,” said the guest, “I saw how the moon and the sun were washed in a high mountain lake, I also swam in it, and it gave me powerful strength that made me a hero.”
Then the padishah realized that in front of him was his black slave, who had become a mighty hero, but pretended that he did not recognize him.
“If he marries my daughter, he, as a son-in-law, will again serve me. I will send him to fight, and he will gain me glory and increase my wealth,” the padishah reasoned to himself.
Having finished his story, the hero said to the padishah:
- Now I have fulfilled everything I promised, and I want to get what was promised to me for it. Do you remember your word, master?
“Marry my daughter, and you will receive freedom with her,” the padishah hastily said.
The black hero laughed.
“You don’t know very well what freedom is if you want to give it to your daughter!” Who needs your old, stupid and snobby daughter? Even a black slave would not agree to take her as his wife!
The padishah, angry at the hero's ridicule, ordered his servants to seize him. But the black hero scattered the yasauls who ran up to him and, taking out his sword, rushed to the padishah. The cowardly and weak padishah could not fight the hero; he ran away from him like a hare from a mighty lion.
The black hero left the padishah's palace and went free around the world to defend the weak before the strong.
But the daughter of the padishah never married and remained an old maid.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru